The East German Leadership and the Division of Germany
Patriotism and Propaganda 1945-1953
(Sprache: Englisch)
This is the most detailed and up-to-date study of the division of Germany after the Second World War. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished documents, Dirk Spilker reveals the political realities of the situation in post-war Germany, and reassesses the...
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Produktinformationen zu „The East German Leadership and the Division of Germany “
This is the most detailed and up-to-date study of the division of Germany after the Second World War. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished documents, Dirk Spilker reveals the political realities of the situation in post-war Germany, and reassesses the motivations and actions of the Western Allies and the Soviet bloc as they manoeuvred to achieve their ends.
Klappentext zu „The East German Leadership and the Division of Germany “
Would it have been possible to build a unified and democratic Germany half a century before the fall of the Berlin Wall? This book reassesses this question by exploring Germany's division after the Second World War from the point of view of the SED, the communist-led and Soviet-sponsored ruling party of East Germany.Drawing on unpublished documents from the SED archives, Dr Spilker rejects claims that the East German comrades and their Soviet masters had abandoned their struggle for socialism and were willing to accept a democratic Germany in exchange for a pledge to neutrality. He argues that the communists' sudden switch to a multi-party approach at the end of the war was a tactical move inspired not by a desire for compromise but by the mistaken belief that they could win political hegemony - and the chance to introduce socialism throughout Germany - through the ballot box.
Communist optimism, as this book shows, rested on specific assumptions about the situation after the war, all of which revolved around the prospect of political instability and social unrest in West Germany. The comrades in East Berlin did not just say that their regime would ultimately prevail, they genuinely believed it. Nor should their hopes be dismissed as a mere fantasy. In the aftermath of the war, the economic gap between the two Germanies was still relatively narrow and West Germany's future success as a magnet for the people in East Germany was by no means guaranteed.
Inhaltsverzeichnis zu „The East German Leadership and the Division of Germany “
- Introduction
- 1: 'It Should Look Democratic': The German Communists and the Birth of the SED
- 2: Nationwide Goals and Zonal Priorities: The KPD/SED and the German Question from Potsdam to Bizonia
- 3: Between Hope and Despair: The SED and the Consolidation of the SBZ
- 4: Unity Postponed: The SED and the Founding of the GDR
- 5: Retreat and Retrenchment: The SED and the German Question in the Early 1950s
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Autoren-Porträt von Dirk Spilker
Dirk Spilker took degrees at the Universities of Cologne, Cambridge, and Oxford, and is now a management consultant in his native Germany.Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Dirk Spilker
- 2006, 320 Seiten, Maße: 22,3 cm, Gebunden, Englisch
- Verlag: Oxford University Press
- ISBN-10: 0199284121
- ISBN-13: 9780199284122
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
...cogent and persuasive...Specialists will find the book stimulating...But the book's vigorous argument, and direct, unpretentious prose will also make it accessible to a wider audience interested in the early phases of the Cold War. Gareth Pritchard The English Historical Review
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